Tokai forest reclaimed
IN REMEMBRANCE: Capetonians are slowly and cautiously returning to Tokai Forest after 16-year-old Franziska Blöchliger was accosted while jogging on March 7 last year. Her body was later found in the thick fynbos. A cross now marks the spot and ribbons adorn the gate at the entrance to the park. Picture: David Ritchie/ANA Pictures IN REMEMBRANCE: Capetonians are slowly and cautiously returning to Tokai Forest after 16-year-old Franziska Blöchliger was accosted while jogging on March 7 last year. Her body was later found in the thick fynbos. A cross now marks the spot and ribbons adorn the gate at the entrance to the park. Picture: David Ritchie/ANA Pictures
Cape Town - After the brutal rape and murder of teenager Franziska Blöchliger in Tokai Forest, residents of the surrounding areas have slowly reclaimed the forest, aware of the dangers that might lurk.On that fateful day in March last year, Franziska, 16, was dragged from the wide bridle path that separates the fynbos belt from the 100m2 of pine trees, raped and brutally murdered.
In the middle of the 2m-high fynbos, there is a simple wooden cross adorned with a string of shells, a khaki baseball cap with a tiny South African flag, white pebbles and messages on laminated card.
You can walk for kilometres without seeing someone, or see lone people in the distance with their dogs like spectres in the forest, or on their bicycles on the gravel pathways and when they cross the paths of strangers, you can see them pause and greet.
Out walking her two dogs, Cheryl Bain, who has lived in the area for 20 years, said she came the day the police cordoned off the fynbos area, said she used to walk there, but she won't walk there on her own again.
“The paths are too narrow through the fynbos.
"You have to walk in single file and also it has grown too high, you can't see. If the paths were wider and lower it would be better.
“People do walk through the fynbos, usually with others. Obviously people walking in company is better. I won't walk through the fynbos at the moment, I just don't feel quite safe, as it has gone very tall and that is the main issue with this area. You can't see.
“You can see between the trees. You can see if someone's coming. You want to see what's coming your way. Sometimes you see labourers taking a short cut from the farms, but you don't really see 'odd people'. That day was very unusual for that time of year. You don't see many people at 3pm in summer. People come after 4pm when it's cooler,” said Bain.
Darryl Smith, who was out walking with his daughter Erin, said in the last two months he had noted the park was busier than it had been last year, especially at weekends when people were out jogging, bicycling on the gravel or walking their dogs.
“Now you see no one goes alone. Parents look out for their children and teens and they're always in a group. You don't see women and girls alone any more,” said Erin Smith.
Chris Gulle said he and his friends have never stopped coming to the forest because it was “different” for them as they were young men, but it was different for the young women they knew, who were “more cautious”.
“This happens everywhere you go. I can't really not come back here because something happened here.”
A Kirstenhof man who was walking his dogs but did not want to be named, said that immediately after the tragedy he did not see many women.
“Sometimes, I see senior ladies alone with their dogs. As long as you stay on the bridle path and between the trees it's fine. The fynbos area is the problem.”
Mayco member for safety and security and social services JP Smith said: “More good people using outdoor spaces for healthy activities means unhealthy activities and criminal behaviour does not thrive. More people should get out there and walk their dogs and go jogging in the forest. More eyes means less crime.”